Ismet Prcic will be reading from his brilliant and provocative debut novel, "Shards," the story of two young Bosnians in the mid-1990's and the way war interrupts their narrative: the fictional protagonist, also named Ismet Prcic, escapes by way of a theatre troupe performing in Edinburgh and immigrates to the United States; and Mustafa Nalic, who joins a troop of elite soldiers and stays in Bosnia to fight. As Mustafa's story shadows Ismet's new-world identity, the reader is charged with piecing together the fragments of a life that has become eerily unrecognizable, even to the one living it. Shards is a thrilling read - a harrowing war story, a stunningly original coming-of-age novel, and a heartbreaking saga of a splintered family.

Ismet Prcic currently resides in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two cats named after Russian prostitutes. He holds an MFA in Writing from the University of California, Irvine where he received one half of the Glenn Schaeffer Award in Fiction.

Davd Hernandez's third collection of poetry, "Hoodwinked," provides a look into the human struggle to find vindication and beauty in a world ever steering towards apathy and decay. "The lyrics in Hoodwinked read as odes to mortality," Amy Gerstler writes in the introductory pages. "They marvel nonstop, unsentimentally, and with necessary ambivalence, at the world as given and the human inability to consistently rise to the exhausting challenge of making every second count."

Winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, Hernandez's words captivate readers towards an honest and unapologetic reality, stifling its seeming levity and calling for a second, scrutinized look.